My HOA recently used Layman for some tree and limb cutting work to meet fire safety and insurance requirements and the results were abysmal.
My main complaint involves two instances of extreme and unnecessary over-limbing. In one, they needlessly decimated a beautiful 25 year old aspen tree in my front yard morphing it into the mangled wretch of a "half-tree" shown in the photos. The tree now looks more like a fake facade that looks OK from the front until you view it from the other three sides... Most of the backside, except for the very top, was completely sheared off - leaving behind an ugly looking, off-kilter tree which looks like it wants to teeter over.
What is even more infuriating about this hack job is that it was completely preventable. Before it happened, I met personally with the owner of the company, Robbie Layman, and basically begged him to trim as minimally as possible, yet I received a dismissive, brush off attitude back. And when I came home later in the day, this is what was left. To say that this was done to meet fire separation requirements is complete baloney because nothing else in the 8-building complex was limbed this far back in this manner. Branches extend close to and practically touch structures in many places throughout the complex and in the case of building E are still in direct contact with the rooftop... How is that fire mitigation?!
I now have this 10-foot overkill void strip. And when I expressed my shock and awe to Mr Layman after seeing the mess for the first time, Mr Layman's response was a flip, bratty "well as I am a professional arborist, I guess that we just have different expectations." How obnoxious!
The second instance of butchery involves a spruce tree that was limbed half the way up. In this instance, they were supposed to trim the bottom limbs for fire protection, not 7 feet up the tree. Mr Layman admitted that it was an oops when I asked him about it just afterwards. The employee got carried away and went too far, apparently. Unfortunately, the complex gets stuck with this silly looking thing. See before and after photos.
In conclusion, the 'service' was disgraceful, permanent and is a painful reminder every time I look at it - which is every day. I tried to prevent this, but Layman did it anyway and now I have to live with the consequence while he got paid for it. Disgusted! read more